1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an electronic record system, and more particularly, to an electronic medical record device and management system that is encrypted to authenticate, authorize and deny access to the system and patient information based on a user's encryption security level, facilitates electronic updating of patient information on the device and in the system by authorized users and manages the storage, flow and access to medical information stored in a database or data warehouse.
2. Description of the Background Art
Patient medical information, dental information, personal information, insurance information, charts and diagnostic test results have been traditionally maintained in paper medical files or in some respects on a computer system, and managed by the doctors' offices. The problem with traditional systems and methods is that only the patient's doctor has access to personal information and other doctors and medical personnel do not have immediate access when they may need it to treat a patient, especially in emergencies. Right now, hospitals and doctor offices do not share medical information electronically and do not have the ability to access a patient's medical and related information outside of their own internal system. To obtain needed patient medical information, a doctor or medical personnel must try to locate a patient's doctor and wait for the information or spend time tracking down needed medical and related information. If unsuccessful, the medical personnel must run tests, which may not be needed or may administer medical treatment or medicine that is detrimental to the patient. This is not only financially costly, but it cost a patient's life.
When a patient is treated by emergency medical personnel at a remote location or in a hospital emergency room, doctors want and need to know important medical information of the patient to properly treat them without risking harm or even death to the patient. Attending physicians and nurses need to know what medications the patient takes, whether the patient is allergic to any medicine or has any diseases, heart disease or any other relevant health condition. If a patient is in a comatose state, unconscious or unable to recall their doctor's name or their actual medical history and information, it makes it much more difficult and dangerous for the attending physician to administer care. In these situations, prior to treating the patient, the attending physician has to spend time, energy and resources to determine a patient's medical status. This increases the costs of treating a patient and greatly increases the risk of additional suffering by the patient, permanent health consequences or even potential death.
Attempts have been made to create medical cards and systems with electronically stored medical information of a person that can be accessed electronically and a universal medical information system. These devices and systems, however, have not been adopted by the medical community for several reasons. For instance, current medical information cards known are easily manipulated as they are not encrypted to control access. Conventional medical cards also fail to satisfy HIPAA requirements because they are not secure, are unreliable and easily manipulated by the owner or caring medical personnel. Accordingly, medical doctors and nurses do not and cannot rely on the health information contained on a patient's medical card.
There are many patents and published patent applications that disclose a variety of medical health cards and record systems, but they fail to adequately and effectively address these reliability and accessibility issues as contemplated by the instant invention disclosed herein. Accordingly, they have not been adopted for mainstream use or for use to make the medical record industry electronic. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,215, issued to Grushka, discloses a portable personal health information package comprising a database management software program and portable computer readable storage device wherein the owner has absolute control on the availability, completeness, accuracy, integrity, confidentiality, security, backups and access to his health data. U.S. Pat. No. 6,662,999, issued to Vancour et al., discloses a system and method for generating an identification card with information regarding providers, eligibility, the client, benefits and business rules to reduce errors in exchanging data, U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,205, issued to Jacobson, discloses a system and method for extracting and processing data on an information card, particularly a healthcare plan identification card, wherein the system associates the data with a healthcare plan sponsor, analyzes the data to determine a healthcare plan product identifier and provides information about the healthcare plan so that decisions can be made about an individual associated with the healthcare plan. U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,393, issued to Honda et al., discloses a medical information management system including a portable memory card carried by a patient to store personal medical information and a read/write drive for the card that includes an optical head, a carrier mechanism for loading the memory and a coupler section for coupling electronic information to be read and written from the integrated circuit memory so that reading and writing of optical information can be conducted simultaneously with reading and writing electronic information. U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,998, issued to McGauley et al., discloses a method and system for maintaining and self-updating computerized medical records that employs point-of-service stations disposed at convenient medical service locations, wherein each patient carries a portable data carrier such as a smart card that contains the patient's complete medical history and interacts with the point-of service stations that effects a virtual communication link to tie the distributed databases together without need for online or live data connections. U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,544, issued to Chaco et al., discloses a patient care and communication system that utilizes a central processing system and a plurality of remote stations electrically connected to the central processing system to facilitate audio, visual and data communications. U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,379 issued to Perkins et al., discloses a method of modifying comparable health care services by comparing health care services from different providers independently of the clinical complexity of treating the diseases of the patients involved. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,996, issued to Yasaka et al., discloses an apparatus for collecting and recovering medical data which allows a number of different patients to be identified by an ID card or label and has a plurality of keyboard printing units and memory for receiving medical data as well as a control unit for controlling the input and output units. While the foregoing patents disclose a variety of medical cards and medical data systems, they all fail to provide a reliable and effective medical data record system that is reliable, encrypted and secure in HIPPA compliance so as to provide an accepted electronic medical record system for widespread use by the medical profession and insurance companies, as contemplated by the instant invention.
As noted, there are also a many published patent applications that disclose a variety of medical health cards and record systems, but they too fail to adequately and effectively address the reliability and accessibility issues of devices and systems. For instance, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2009/0164243, filed by Zubak et al., discloses a system and method for generating healthcare identification and reconciliation information, wherein the system receives input data representative of a participating user's benefit plan, patient data, network data, insurance/payor data and healthcare provider data. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2009/0144200, filed by Yoshioka, discloses a medical care record management system, medical care record management program and medical care record management method that acquires medical care information from a medical institution that conducts care for an insured patient and information that integrates medical and insured patient information with insured patients' signatures and medical institutions' signatures. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2009/0019552, filed by McLaughlin et al., discloses a healthcare medical information management system for providing access to healthcare records that includes a database system comprising patient healthcare records, a healthcare workstation coupled to the database system and an authentication system that generates a fingerprint image of the patient at the point of treatment and a corresponding identification number and compares the number to a corresponding patient. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2008/0319798, filed by Kelley, discloses a personalized medical information cared and method for managing same that includes creating an online medical information record that contains an individual's stored personal medical information, providing a credit card sized card which includes the individual's key medical information and enabling the individual to update their own medical information online. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2008/0306774, filed by George et al., discloses a credit card sized digital storage device and data system for health care information including memory and a processor for processing digital data, an output on the card for converting and transmitting digital data for video output, a plurality of touch sensitive controls on the planar surface of the card and a wireless transmitter or a USB connector for physical connection to a computing device. U.S. Patent Pub. 2008/0183504, filed by Highley, discloses a point-of-care touch/click information entry system used for replacing or augmenting standard dictation transcription models in medical record systems and that uses key word entry to standardize medical record display. U.S. Patent Pub. 2008/0109261, filed by Kobayashi et al., discloses a method and apparatus for providing information that includes an updating unit that updates an electronic medical chart of a patient, an acquiring unit for acquiring information on recorded diagnosis and treatment from an updated medical chart, and an authenticating unit that authenticates the patient based on the acquired information. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2007/0158411, filed by Krieg, Jr., discloses a method and system for storing, retrieving and updating information from an information card, wherein information on the card may be read from a magnetic reader and may comprise emergency tags, residential information tags, vehicle tags and retail tags. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2007/0129969, filed by Burdick et al., discloses a system for entry of patient information for use by a medical office wherein the system comprises a patient data entry system that accepts direct electronic data input from patients through an in-office data entry system or through a web-based data entry system. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2007/0088564, filed by March, Jr. et al., discloses a healthcare insurance claim processing system and method that generates a first set of data fields for display in a healthcare form. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2007/0100664, filed by Seib et al., discloses an integrated healthcare and financial card comprising a magnetic swipe card having a magnetic stripe having at least two tracks for holding encoding data. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2006/0111940, filed by Johnson et al., discloses a method and apparatus for assessing credit for healthcare patients prior to rendering treatment. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2006/0074713, filed by Conry et al., discloses a patient identification card system and method for efficient medical care including a patient card, patient card access device and a medical report and a method for obtaining patient information using a patient card including inputting a request to a data processor, processing the request with the data processor and outputting the processed information to a medical report. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0197859, filed by Wilson et al., discloses a portable electronic data storage and retrieval system for health care data for a group, such as a household, that allows for the storage and retrieval of household level information in addition to individual household member data/information. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2004/0199408, filed by Johnson, discloses a medical information card containing patient medical history information and medications in a form that is readable without a machine and includes a computerized system and method for producing the cards and updating information at a pharmacy where a new card is printed and presented. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2003/0204417, filed by Mize, discloses an apparatus, method and system for the recordation, retrieval and management of pet information and use of same which provides membership-based selective access and retrieval of pet medical conditions, allergies and vaccinations and also includes pet owner spending habits. Lastly, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2003/0220822, filed by Fiala et al., discloses a medical information registration and retrieval apparatus and method wherein a subscriber purchases database storage and enters medical information. While the foregoing published patent applications disclose a variety of medical cards and medical data systems, they also fail to provide a reliable and effective medical data record system that is reliable, encrypted and secure in HIPPA compliance so as to provide an accepted electronic medical record system for widespread use by the medical profession and insurance companies, as contemplated by the instant invention.
If there was a medical information system in existence that stored vital medical data and made portions of it available to medical personnel according to security clearance guidelines, it would be well received. However, there are no known medical information systems known that satisfy these requirements. Therefore, there exists a need for a medical information device and system that stores, controls and makes certain medical information available for access and updating according to predetermined security requirements. It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is directed. The instant invention addresses this unfulfilled need in the prior art by providing an encrypted portable medical information device and system as contemplated by the instant invention disclosed herein.